Author: boolie

The Aging Pup

Our elderly dog Ellie sleeps on her dog bed

When I got back from a two day trip to the coast you would have thought I had been gone two months by the warm welcome I got from our aging pup. Ellie shadowed me everywhere I went, brushing up against me, even following me up and down the stairs on her arthritic legs. I took some time to shower her with affection to let her know I was happy to be reunited too. Time continues to take its toll on her, her blood pressure is up again and so is the protein in her urine, so she’s getting more medicine and a kidney-friendly dog food. She’s also getting anti-inflammatory pills since the arthritis is getting worse, so there’s now a whole army of pills she gets each morning and evening. She gets tired easily and takes a lot longer to recover after a walk, but she still gave me a 45-minute walk today on a sunny but cool fall morning.

She’s probably about fourteen years old, so all things considered she’s doing rather well, and I’m thankful for every day we get with her.

I Don’t Have To Be Tall To Do My Job

The Heceta Head Light on the Oregon coast

I usually think of lighthouses as being tall but perhaps the diminutive Heceta Head Light didn’t need to be as it sits high upon the cliffs above the Pacific Ocean. There isn’t much room between the lighthouse and those cliffs, so photographing it while next to it doesn’t yield the most flattering angle, but it does emphasize the short stature of this beacon of light. You can also see it from both the trail and the beach, and I did mean to photograph it when I got down to the beach near sunset, but the tide was out and I got distracted by tide pools.

As you do.

Resting, Hiding

A black-tailed deer rests in the shadows, hidden by the tall grass, along the Rich Guadagno Memorial Loop Trail at Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon

A black-tailed deer rests in the shadows, hidden by the tall grass, along the Rich Guadagno Memorial Loop Trail at Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. I’d frame this a little differently today, I took this in the summer of 2001 during my first full year with a digital camera, although to be fair to my past self I was working around hot-spots created by the bright sun. I think the trail back then was known as the Baskett Butte Trail, as the trail leads up to Baskett Butte, but the trail is now named in Rich’s memory. He was a former manager of the refuge and would die two months after this photo was taken in the attacks on 9/11. There is a plaque dedicated to him atop the butte.